Hydronic heating systems require a “mechanical space” for the central equipment. Mechanical spaces in the past were large spaces since the boilers they contained were large and needed to be accommodated. As a result, a considerable amount of wall space was typically available to mount mechanical components in a linear sequence. New, very small, condensing boilers have entered the market and created a need to make smaller, space saving hydronic mechanical modules to fit in small mechanical spaces.
The new boilers work best with hydraulic separation of flow between a primary piping loop and secondary loops that go to heating zones so that the primary loop can be predictably designed to provide the necessary flow for the boiler heat exchanger and to overcome the often high resistance to flow of such specialized heat exchangers.
If the components are piped conventionally and mounted on the wall, this takes up a great deal more space than the boiler which if installed alone would only require a very small space. The wasteful use of a large space in conventional hydronic mechanical rooms is costly in that the components themselves are costly, as is the cost per square foot to construct the large mechanical space to accommodate it. Thus a need has arisen for much more compact and cost effective components and modules for use in hydronic heating systems.
Hydraulic separation components have been constructed largely in the field with the use of closely spaced “Tees”. Hydraulic separators with a hydraulic separation chamber have been available in the past but they have not been made from inexpensive piping materials and methods or included a quality air elimination device or with specific thought in how to port them with space saving end suction pumps to save space for use with the new very small condensing boilers.
Previous air eliminators have been designed separately to be mounted in line with a single ingoing and outgoing pipe and have been predominantly made from cast parts. The use of closely spaced Tees to hydraulically separate the primary and secondary loops of a hydronic system have been employed before, and hydraulic separators have taken various forms but have not been integrated with a high quality air elimination system using the principles of change of volume, direction, rotation, and/or change in pressure to precipitate air from the hydronic fluid.